KG will stick to his comeback routine by going 8 minutes in both the 1st and 3rd quarters, so we will once again be seeing a lot of Big Baby tonight. He had a very nice performance during the last time he made the trip to Orlando (16 points in 21 minutes) so I’m sure Doc is hoping he can contribute something similar again this evening.

Celtics lead the season series 2-1, so a win tonight for the C’s would give them an extra game in the standings as well as the tiebreaker, if the teams have matching records at the end of the regular season. Thus if the Celtics can pull out the victory tonight, it would go a long way for giving them some breathing room in the battle for the 2 seed during the final 10 games.

Despite the tiebreaker implications, this game will likely mean more to the Magic than to the Celtics. Orlando is still a team on a mission to gain respect in the Eastern Conference. Need proof? Here’s what Stan Van Gundy had to say when talking to the Orlando Sentinel earlier this afternoon.

“All I hear is that we’re soft and everything else or that we just win games by jacking up 3’s. Very few people have realized that we’ve won games at the defensive end of the floor. I think Dwight has been consistent defensively, I think Rashard has improved dramatically defensively and we have better options to go big.”

Talk like that makes tonight feel like a statement game for this Orlando team, so look them to bring the intensity from the opening tip against the Celts. Should be a good one to watch. For a more in-depth look at the improvement of this year’s Orlando team take a look at this expanded analysis from earlier today.

Brian Robb

Brian Robb co-founded CelticsHub in 2009 and is the currently editor-in-chief. He is a producer and reporter at 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston and also contributes to Boston.com and Bleacher Report among other outlets.

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